R ESEARCH F INDINGS

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Chapter 5: Conclusion

This research concerned about children's use of blogs in their daily life, attempted to learn children's digit bedroom culture through the analyses of all kinds of documents presented in children’s blogs, and to know how children gain identity through blogs. This chapter included four sections. In the first section, research questions were discussed, and documents analyses and interview results were summarized. The second section included research limitations, the limitations and the challenges faced in the research methods and research findings. At last, new ideas and suggestions of the future children’s digital bedroom culture research were raised based on the research findings and research limitations.

5.1 Research Findings

In the past children's bedroom culture, children always invited their friends home to play games. The bedroom was a place in which parents could keep an eye on children’s behavior, and knew whom they were playing with, talking with and what they were doing. However, with the development of technologies on media promotion, more possibilities have been brought into people’s life. Appearance of blogs made it possible for digit bedrooms. In the private as well as open small room, one type of new culture was incubated and a kind of new fashion of communication came out.

5.1.1 Blogs in Daily Life

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to share their life and personal creations, especially the application of digital camera, which brings children more chances of spontaneous learning.

Blog albums are different from traditional albums, which merely are used to keep camera photos. Blog albums are also used for keeping life records. Besides it, all images in them can be edited to personal unique style through computer editing. In addition to demonstrating life and creations, another important function of albums is to show support on someone or something. In children’s blogs, we can find that they collect their favorite stars’ pictures, and even set these star images as their blogs' homepage table-board, or post the process of their star-worshiping. In the interview, children also showed that they could enlarge their social network with their favorite persons or things in the albums. People who have common interests could link to their blogs because of relevant keywords. Thus they could make more friends.

The function of blog journals complements with albums’. Children can insert pictures of albums into their journals, to enrich their journals and also make it possible for those who are interested in the topics to visit albums for more creations.

Furthermore, the comment function of journals is also one important part to which children always pay attention. Through comments, they may gain more friendly supports or warm consolation, or strengthen close relationship among a small group or squeeze out someone purposely. All of these make blog journals a tool for contrast social network among a small group in addition to mood sharing.

In addition, this research also found that through blog activities children’s daily peer social network extends to vertical social network. By using the interconnection and search functions of blogs, children might get to know and make older friends.

These so-called older brothers or sisters not only offer children daily suggestions or

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encouragement, might also induce a kind of irritating or clamor culture in blogs, sometimes this kind of virtual Internet bullying could develop into the actual campus bullying.

5.1.2 Blogs as Heterotopias

In The Other Space, Foucault (1986: 24) brought out the concept of heterotopias, which provided a wonderful framework for cyberspace study. Not like Utopia, which represents a nonexistent ideal land, heterotopias lie beyond any places, but we can still find its real location. It represents another kind of real space, different from the virtual space.

Foucault (1986: 27) used the boat as the image of heterotopias: the boat is a floating piece of space, a space without stable location, self-exist and self-closed, at the same time can drive into the limitless sea. This description exactly coincides with the usage of Internet. We call Internet access as surfing, and every foothold (such as the website, email, and blogs discussed in this paper) may become a personal boat, enjoying navigation in the sea.

The Internet is not utopia, because it exists truly (the digital foothold) but beyond all places, and can provide an illusive or compensating space (compared to reality) to children. If we take the blogs of children as heterotopias, the 3rd and 5th principles brought out by Foucault are particularly suitable to be used for discussing children’s’

blog activities.

Firstly, according to the 3rd principle, heterotopias juxtapose several incompatible spaces into one univocal real space. In general children manage blogs in their homes, especially in their bedrooms or reading rooms. The bedroom or the

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reading room, as a real piece of space, allows a child to log onto the Internet through the computer, the screen, and the server. The blog offers an ideal space for children to set up their personal private space, and place it in public space. Through blogs, children can shuttle among different places at the same time, such as between home and outdoors, private space and public space, self and others.

Secondly, according to the 5th principle, heterotopias preset an open as well as closed system, can be isolated or opened for others. The blog of a child belongs to an open as well as closed system. Although the blog lies among the public Internet space, if children don’t give their accounts to friends, it is not that easy to search a specific blog among the vast blogs. Furthermore, both albums and journals of the blog can be set passwords, although they can be opened to all viewers, but children can still hold privacy.

Nowadays, in addition to school time, children also take after-class tutorials or learn various talents and skills. Thus many chances of hanging out with friends are deprived of. However, children can have fun and interact with their friends through displaying or sharing in blogs, breaking through space limitation and building an ideal digital bedroom to compensate themselves.

5.1.3 Building Self Images in Blogs

A child uploads photos or posts journals in the blog to build self-image through self-disclosure. The research found that a child seemed self attentive and friendly to peers, or showed a trustable image in the blog. But the child in the blog is usually different from the one in reality. An individual said: “The blog made me more confused about this person, because he is totally different in the blog from the one we learn in daily life.” In the meanwhile, he said, “In the blog, we feel that he is a

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trustable friend.”

The analysis and conclusions of this research is not going to summarize all the children, but is trying to understand and discover from two cases how children of this age have fun and build self images in new digital media ---- blogs.